Call to members: 5 questions on the operation of Universal Credit

With the pace of roll-out due to increase from October, we want to hear examples from Homeless Link members of positive practice in the local operation of Universal Credit.

For new Work and Pensions Secretary of State, David Gauke, two manifesto commitments are particularly important:

Firstly, the commitment to halve rough sleeping over the course of the parliament will require, as we have outlined, adequate support with housing costs through the benefits system.

Secondly, the commitment to continue the roll-out of Universal Credit, means that solutions will need to be found to the many issues Homeless Link, as part of the Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) coalition, and others have raised to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s Universal Credit inquiry (see our response here).

There are problems around long waiting periods for initial payments and also issues with claimants not being given the choice to have housing costs paid direct to landlords, lack of IT support and difficulties for third parties in supporting people. These will all require changes to the way that Universal Credit operates both locally and nationally.

Although only around 70 Job Centres have the full Universal Credit service in place (an updated map of current centres with full Universal Credit is available here), these issues will become even more prevalent from October, when roll out of Universal Credit will increase (to see when your Job Centre is due to go live, view this timetable).

As a membership organisation, Homeless Link hears of many issues Universal Credit is causing homeless people, but we have also been made aware of pockets of good practice at a local level. We want to make this practice much more commonplace; both through sharing examples amongst members and by using positive examples to show Government what can be done where processes are refined.

We are, therefore, asking members to let us know if they have any examples of positive practice, in particular around:

Relevant claimants being made aware that there are exceptions to the one week waiting day’s penalty